During a recent Senate testimony, IBM Canada executives revealed senior officials within the federal government were warned about the Phoenix pay system’s unrealistic rollout schedule. IBM continued to voice their concerns from July and August 2015 until January 2016, a period that spanned the federal election and saw the Conservative government replaced by the Liberals. IBM execs suggest the Phoenix software is sound, and it was poor management and lack of training around the technology that led to tens of thousands of public servants shortchanged across Canada.

People on social media are concerned about a new report that points to a targeted ransomware attack against Boeing. The attack came from a WannaCry computer virus that infected thousands of systems in more than 70 countries last year. Various reports point to an internal mem from Boeing’s chief engineer Mike VanderWel who was worried the attack could spread to the company’s production systems and airline software. In a recent statement however, Boeing said the attack did not affect production lines and that the detected intrusion was “limited” and only affected a small number of systems.

Microsoft recently announced a major reorganization that will lead to the creation of two main engineering teams focused on experiences and devices, and cloud and AI platforms. Microsoft says the move was done to speed up innovation within the company and to better serve customers and partners.Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Windows and devices group, is also leaving the company. Microsoft’s cloud services drove the company’s second quarter growth in 2018, as Azure revenue grew by 98 per cent, while Dynamics 365 revenue grew by 67 per cent.

That’s what’s trending this week. Hashtag Trending is produced by IT World Canada. Today’s episode is sponsored by Cogeco Peer 1, the company that enables businesses to unlock their IT potential. Learn more at CP1.com.

Staff writer for IT World Canada and former community reporter. When not writing about the tech scene, Alex is playing or watching basketball, reading comics and looking up slow-cook meals. He’s also a massive fan of bow ties.